GrabFood rider helps twins wandering alone at 1am in Sembawang find their way home
A GrabFood rider was surprised to see two young children playing alone by the roadside while waiting at a red light in Sembawang on July 17 at around 1am.
A Stomper alerted Stomp to a post about the encounter by Facebook user Muhammad Harris, which has since been taken down.
Harris told Stomp he was on his motorcycle at Admiralty Drive in the early hours of the morning when he noticed the children picking up sticks and dried leaves near a traffic light.
"I looked around to see if there were any adults with them, but it seemed like only the two of them," he said.
"When the green man started flashing, they crossed the road on their own.
"But what touched my heart was that even at that age, the brother held his sister's hand tightly as they crossed together."
Concerned for their safety, Harris made a U-turn and slowly approached them.
"I didn't want to scare them, so I stopped at the side and asked in Malay, 'Adik nak pergi mana malam-malam?' which means, 'Where are you going so late at night?'" he shared.
He discovered that the boy and girl were six-year-old twins.
The children replied that they were headed to their "mummy's house" and had come from their grandmother's home.
Harris asked if they knew the way, and the boy confidently replied, "Go straight, turn right."
However, when asked for the block or unit number, he couldn't answer.
Sensing they might be lost, Harris told them to wait while he parked his bike safely and offered to walk with them.
"I asked their names, ages, and what school they go to," he said. "But halfway through the walk, they said we might be going the wrong way. I asked again if they knew their mother's number or block, but they said they couldn't remember."
With little information to go on and growing concerned, Harris called the police and stayed with the children until officers arrived.
"The police took down my particulars and said I was good to go and that they would take care of the kids," he said.
Fortunately, the story has a happy ending.
"Later that day, a friend of the children's mother messaged me on Facebook saying she knows the kids' mum and would try to reach her," he said.
"A few minutes later, she updated me that the kids were safely back with their mother."
Stomp understands the children have are with their family.
Harris, who described himself as just doing what any concerned adult would, said: "Seeing them by themselves made me worried.
"They're still just kids and crossing the road without an adult is dangerous.
"Luckily, it was so late at night that there weren't many vehicles."
